Saudi Arabia ends 50-year petrodollar agreement with U.S.
Significant financial turmoil lies ahead in the financial world as Saudi Arabia has decided not to renew its 50-year petrodollar agreement with the United States. The deal, which expired on Sunday, June 9, was a cornerstone of American global economic dominance, The Business Standard commented.
Signed on June 8, 1974, the treaty included the creation of two joint commissions: one based on economic cooperation and the other on Saudi Arabia's military needs.
U.S. officials at the time expressed optimism that the deal would motivate Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production. They also saw the agreement as a plan to promote economic cooperation between Washington and other Arab countries.
The decision not to renew the contract allows Saudi Arabia to sell oil and other commodities in multiple currencies, including Chinese RMB, euros, yen and yuan, instead of just U.S. dollars.
This latest development marks a major departure from the petrodollar system established in 1972 when the U.S. decoupled its currency from gold, and is expected to accelerate the global move away from the U.S. dollar.
The dominance of the U.S. dollar is waning as Russia and Saudi Arabia consider using the Chinese yuan for oil deals and investors may need to start reconsidering their long-term investment strategies, said the CEO and founder of one of the world's largest independent financial advisory and asset management firms, DeVere Group.
Nigel Green's warning states that the change in the way global oil trade is conducted will have far-reaching consequences for economies and, therefore, for investors around the world.
"One of the most significant results of the three-day summit in April between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was that Putin announced that Russia now supports the use of the Chinese yuan for oil agreements," Green said. This suggests that the world's second-largest economy – China – and Russia are actively intent on reducing the dominance of the US dollar as the basis of the international financial system.
"Separately, Sudanese oil company Aramco plans to supply two Chinese companies with a total of 690,000 barrels per day of crude oil, reinforcing its position as China's largest supplier of crude," Green added. "It was reported that Saudi Arabia is also in talks with Beijing to pay in yuan instead of dollars."
Aramco is one of the largest oil producers in the world and is wholly owned and controlled by the Saudi government.
It seems that the rivals of the United States, led by China, are forming a new large economic bloc. If Saudi Arabia, which has vast oil reserves that are estimated to be the largest in the world, really switches to the yuan, it will bring about a huge change in the global economic system.
Cross-border CBDC transactions
Saudi Arabia has announced its participation in mBridge, a project that is exploring a central bank digital currency platform (CBDC) shared between central and commercial banks from different countries. The platform allows instant cross-border payments and foreign currency transactions.
The project involves more than 26 countries with observer status, including the South African Reserve Bank, which received the green light as a member this month.
The more prominent observers of mBridge are the Bank of Israel, the Bank of Namibia, the Bank of France, the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Central Bank of Egypt, the Central Bank of Jordan, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of New York, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the World Bank.
The project's steering committee created a personalised governance and legal framework, including a rulebook, tailored to the decentralized nature of the platform.
Evolution of the mBridge project
The mBridge project is the result of an extensive collaboration that began in 2021 between the BIS Innovation Hub, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China, and the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong.
In 2022, a pilot project was carried out with transactions of real value. Since then, the mBridge project team has been exploring whether the prototype platform can evolve to become a minimum viable product (MVP) – a milestone that has already been reached.
mBridge is now inviting private sector companies to propose new solutions and use cases that could help develop the platform and show its full potential.
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